The great confiscation

Extracted Attributes

• Type

  Economic and demographic trend

• Consequence

  Shift of talent and capital

• Primary Cause

  High-tax states in the U.S.

• Affected Group

  Wealthy Americans

• Historical Precedent (US)

  1933 gold confiscation via Executive Order 6102

• Legal Definition of Confiscation

  Seizure of property by a government or public authority

Timeline

• The Great Depression officially began with a significant drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (Source: web_search_results)

  1929-10-28

• President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102, mandating citizens to sell their gold bullion and coins to the government, a measure to combat deflation during the Great Depression. (Source: web_search_results)

  1933-04

• Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, giving legislative permanence to Roosevelt's gold orders and setting a new, higher official rate for gold. (Source: web_search_results)

  1934-01-30

• The All-In Podcast discussed 'the great confiscation' as a contemporary trend of wealthy Americans relocating from high-tax states to places like Texas and Tokyo. (Source: document_6ba2f53a-7fd9-430e-b161-c111d14fcad8)

  2024-05-11

Confiscation

Confiscation (from the Latin confiscatio "to consign to the fiscus, i.e. transfer to the treasury") is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, or of any seizure of property as punishment or in enforcement of the law.

Web Search Results

• How the US government seized all citizens' gold in 1930s

  During extreme crises, governments can also seize people’s gold. There have been some stunning examples of “gold confiscation” in the past. Most memorably, this occurred in the US in 1933 during the great depression – albeit it’s more accurate to call it a nationalisation than a confiscation, since citizens were compensated. The government of Franklin D Roosevelt seized all gold bullion and coins via Executive Order 6102, forcing citizens to sell at well below market rates. Immediately after [...] the “confiscation”, the government set a new official rate for gold that was much higher as part of the Gold Reserve Act 1934. [...] ## Horns of a trilemma

• Gold Confiscation: Separating Fact from Fiction for Modern Investors

  The 1933 gold confiscation was a unique event sparked by the unprecedented economic crisis and changing monetary policy. It made a lasting impression on the way humans conceptualize gold and government authority, but those conditions are far different from today. [...] The rumors regarding the government taking away your private gold possessions still remain alive, especially during an economic crisis. The issues trace back to a pivotal moment in US History, with the 1933 gold seizure through Executive Order 6102. Amid the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked citizens to exchange their gold possessions for paper money. This out-of-pocket event shook people’s confidence and still worries the citizens even today [...] This is the big question: Could the government pull off another gold confiscation today, like they did in 1933? Legally speaking, the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 still exists, but the landscape has changed drastically since then. Gold is no longer tied to the dollar, and we’re no longer on a gold standard. That alone changes the game.

• Executive Order 6102 | FDR's Gold Confiscation Explained

  Roosevelt’s rationale behind the confiscation of gold was simple. The Great Depression was an ongoing period of economic deflation and stagnation, and he sought to restart the economy by inflating the currency and increasing the money supply. [...] President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102 in April 1933. By that point, the country had been suffering under the effects of the Great Depression for more than three years. The Great Depression officially began on October 28, 1929, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 13% of its value in a single day. The following day, it dropped an additional 12%, and in a matter of weeks, it was worth half as much as before. [...] The notion of the US government outright confiscating gold and threatening fines and jail time for it seems outrageous to those of us born in the past 50 years. Undoubtedly, a similar executive order issued today would spark tremendous turmoil. Likely, a massive debate about the protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution (search and seizure) would erupt.

• Executive Order 6102

  Foreigners also had gold confiscated and were forced to accept paper money for their gold. The Uebersee Finanz-Korporation, a Swiss banking company, had $1,250,000 in gold coins for business use. The Uebersee Finanz-Korporation entrusted the gold to an American firm for safekeeping, and the Swiss were shocked to find that their gold was confiscated. The Swiss made appeals, but they were denied; they were entitled to paper money but not their gold. The Swiss company would have lost 40% of their [...] 1. ^ Richardson, Gary. "Roosevelt's Gold Program". Federal Reserve History. Retrieved 2025-06-13. 2. ^ Angell, James W. (December 1934). "Gold, Banks, and the New Deal". Political Science Quarterly. 49 (4): 481–505. doi "Doi (identifier)"):10.2307/2143463. JSTOR "JSTOR (identifier)") 2143463. 3. ^ "Roosevelt's gold confiscation: could it happen again?". The Daily Telegraph. 2013-04-03. Retrieved 2025-06-13. [...] The case caused the Roosevelt administration to issue a new order under the signature of the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr. Executive Orders 6260, and 6261 provided for the seizure of gold and the prosecution of gold hoarders. A few months later Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which gave legislative permanence to Roosevelt's orders. A new set of Treasury regulations was issued providing civil penalties of confiscation of all gold and imposition of fines equal to

• Roosevelt's Gold Program - Federal Reserve History

  Critics claimed these policies set the stage for an inflation of supply of credit and currency, which would trigger a speculative boom bigger than ever before